By silicon.com, 20 July 2004 17:10
Talk to any CIO of a large multinational company today and they'll tell you all about how their firm's IT strategy is closely aligned to the business plan and how it's not about using technology for technology's sake.
These days CIOs see themselves not only as IT leaders but as business leaders, central to any business transformation plans. This is refreshing to hear.
But new research out this week from Gartner might prove a rude awakening for many of those CIOs and IT directors. It found that while 80 per cent think they have influence in the boardroom, their fellow non-IT execs rank them seventh out of eight in terms of strategic influence, just above the HR director.
The report says that while there is a small number of CIOs who genuinely do have the ear of their CEOs and take an active role in wider company revenue and growth strategies, many are hiding in the comfort zone of IT, blinkered by security and costs instead of taking a more risky entrepreneurial approach.
One CIO of a FTSE 100 company told silicon.com last week that while CIOs aspire to greater things, most haven't earned the right to be anything other than a direct report into the financial director.
With the economy showing tentative signs of recovery, companies which lead their sectors are already implementing innovative plans for growth. There is clearly an opportunity here for CIOs to genuinely establish an influential seat at the top table, though that doesn't mean simply throwing money at any passing technology fad.
Few execs have a true view of the business processes across an organisation and it is here where the CIO can make his influence felt by shifting away from focusing wholly on tactical IT delivery to taking an active part in wider business strategy.
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1. Graham
This seems a shame because CIOs appear to be a start to the absolutely necessary translational buffer between business and IT. Unfortunately, IT staff tend not to have a mind for business requirements and fail in big, noticeable ways hence the 40-odd percent success rate in IT projects (or at least the perception of their ability to deliver). What it takes is for somebody with an eager eye for utilising new technology to determine strategies that would propel an organisation ahead of its competitors whilst retaining an air of realisation and an inate ability to sort the wheat from the chaff (instead of just jumping to service their CEOs whims and the next big thing they read about on the way to work). They won't have many members of staff to supervise and may seem well down the pecking order to other, more ingrained, board members but I hope this perception wanes as we could see a lot more return on investment as far as technology is concerned in the future. Which in turn means cost savings being delivered to the population at large. Which is OK by me!